British designer joins Cambridge studio as head of publishing (by Michael French)


Jagex has hired Jon Hare as its head of publishing, the firm announced this morning.

Hare, who is well known for his work on titles such as Sensible Soccer, Mega-Lo-Mania and Cannon Fodder, will have particular focus on further developing FunOrb.com, the developer's casual games portal.

In his 24 year career Hare has developed more than 30 games on over 20 formats from Sinclair Spectrum to the Nintendo Wii.

Jagex is the UK's largest independent studio and is best known for its Runescape MMO, which is popular amongst younger gamers.

“Jagex is a traditional and very British games development company as well as being one of Europe’s most successful publishers,” said Hare.

“I am really excited to be joining the team and I feel very at home here. I am looking forward to working alongside the management team to help nurture the mentality of innovation and expansion that already exists here and to grow FunOrb into the world’s leading online games destination.”

Mark Gerhard, Jagex CEO, added: ”Jon is one of the most highly rated game designers in Europe and has had a hugely successful career developing classic titles such as Sensible Soccer, Mega-Lo-Mania and Cannon Fodder.

“Jon will be playing a very hands-on role, actively engaged in developing and optimising all of our games. Jagex has always focused on creating games that we want to play, FunOrb is no different. We have specifically created FunOrb for the time-pressured gamer, people who want a high quality deep gaming experience but only have 30 minutes a day or perhaps even a week to relax and enjoy playing. The site isn’t for kids or for mums; it is designed for adult gamers who ask themselves ‘why don’t they make great games like they used to?’.”

Source: http://www.develop-online.net/news/32330/J...are-joins-Jagex

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"We're delighted to welcome Sensible Software legend Jon Hare to #Jagex as our new Head of Publishing (http://bit.ly/7iZtq for more) -Mod AT"

Source: http://twitter.com/OfficialJagex/statuses/2530398905

Very nice! Looking forward now to some good updates in the future from Jagex. It's always a plus to add one of the best game developers in the world.

I beat you Ren!

I posted it at the chat thread like 5 hours ago :P

It deserves its own thread. Jagex getting one of the designers of Sensible Soccer as their new Head of Publishing is, in my view, newsworthy. I knew about this 2 days ago tho, so I should of posted it sooner, tho, I guess.

He's gonna work with FunOrb, wonder what he's gonna publish

cool, Jagex seems to be very resouceful.

While I've never heard of this guy, his company or his games, I guess this is... interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hare

Very nice news. There is the same article at 'http://www.jagex.com/corporate/Press/releaseJon_H.ws' if that helps in any way.

I know Jon Hare worked on the mobile phone versions of Cannon Fodder, Sensible Soccer and Lions Rugby 7s (soruce, source). Do you think that his appointment indicates a step closer to FunOrb Mobile?

Nice thought there Ren, there is that possibility.

Funorb mobile would be... interesting. I personally hate people who pay for games and such on their phones. I mean, phones are for calling people not for all the random stuff piled into them nowadays. I'm happy with my old Nokia brick ;)

Nice!

I'm playing daily arcanists and can't wait until a new game will get released (one who is more fun then Kick About).

This is cool news..
It came in my mind that MAYBE he isn't working on FunOrb , but on MechScape..(this may be a stupid idea..)
Because if they told that a great designer is working on MechScape people will get too enthusiastic about it ;P
This idea is related to what the guys of Jagex tell to not overhype it and such..

It's maybe a wierd idea but yeah , that's me , lol ;)

~Pliiginator